Forty-five minutes into The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, the dragon is already dead, and the real war has barely begun. Peter Jackson‘s sixth and final trip to Middle-earth spends its remaining time on gold madness, five armies colliding beneath a mountain, and a hobbit watching his friend die on the ice. Shortest of the six films, it carries the heaviest body count. Spoilers follow to the last scene.
Detailed Summary
Fire and Water
Smaug hits Lake-town without warning. Houses explode into splinters, the lake boils, and the Master shoves townsfolk off his barge to make room for his gold. Bard breaks out of his cell and climbs the bell tower with his bow.
Ordinary arrows bounce off the dragon’s scales. Bain brings the last Black Arrow, Bard’s bow snaps, and he improvises a crossbow using his son’s shoulder as a rest. Smaug lands in front of them, mocking the archer and his boy. Bard fires into the missing scale, and the dragon dies in mid-air, crushing the Master’s barge as he falls.
The Dragon’s Sickness
Thorin walks the empty treasury alone, demanding the Arkenstone and trusting no one. Bilbo has it in his pocket. He has also pocketed an acorn from Beorn’s garden, and when he tells Thorin he plans to plant it in his own garden, the old Thorin flickers back for a moment.
The moment does not last. Thorin seals the front gate with stone and orders the dwarves to search the hoard again. Balin admits that the sickness that took Thrór has taken his grandson too.
Gundabad
Kíli gives Tauriel his mother’s runestone as the survivors flee the burning town. Legolas and Tauriel ride north to the orc fortress of Gundabad, where Legolas reveals that his mother died there. They watch Bolg lead a second army out of the gates and race back to warn everyone.
The Elves Arrive
Thranduil marches into the ruins of Dale with an army and wagons of food for Bard’s people. His charity has a price: the white gems of Lasgalen that Thrór once refused to return. Bard rides to the gate and offers Thorin peace in exchange for what he promised Lake-town. Thorin shoots an arrow at his feet.
Dol Guldur
Galadriel walks into the fortress alone and finds Gandalf dying in his cage. Azog’s orcs attack, and she carries the wizard out barefoot. Then the Nine emerge from the shadows, and Elrond and Saruman arrive to fight them.
Sauron himself appears as a figure of flame within the Eye. Galadriel unleashes her full power, turns ghostly and terrifying, and banishes him to the East. Saruman tells Elrond to leave Sauron to him. Gandalf rides for Erebor on Radagast’s sled, carrying the brown wizard’s staff.
Bilbo’s Bargain
Gandalf reaches Dale and warns Bard and Thranduil that an orc army is coming. Neither believes him. Bilbo slips out of the mountain that night and hands the Arkenstone to Bard, hoping Thorin will trade for it rather than fight.
At dawn, Bard holds up the jewel. Thorin calls Bilbo a liar, then a thief, and drags him to the edge of the wall to throw him off. Gandalf’s voice stops him. Bilbo climbs down, and Thorin banishes him forever.
Ironfoot
A horn answers from the east. Dáin Ironfoot of the Iron Hills rides up on a war pig with hundreds of armored dwarves, and his idea of diplomacy is telling the elves to clear off. Dwarves and elves square up to fight each other.
The ground opens. Enormous were-worms burrow out of the earth, and Azog’s army pours from the tunnels. Dáin turns his lines to face the orcs, and Thranduil’s elves leap over the dwarf shield wall to meet the charge.
Thorin Returns to Himself
Inside the mountain, Thorin walks on a floor of molten gold while his grandfather’s voice whispers that the treasure is his. He hears his own words thrown back at him, and the gold swallows him. He emerges without his crown and apologizes to his company.
The dwarves smash the gate open with a bell, and Thorin leads them into the battle. Dáin’s lines reform behind the king, and the orcs falter.
Ravenhill
Thorin, Fíli, Kíli and Dwalin ride goats up to Ravenhill, where Azog directs the battle from a ruined tower. Bilbo, wearing the Ring, follows to warn them that Bolg’s army is coming over the ridge. Thorin sends his nephews to scout the tower.
Azog drops Fíli off the parapet, run through, while Thorin and Kíli watch from below. Kíli charges into the ruins. Tauriel arrives behind him and so does Bolg.
Movie Ending
Bolg beats Tauriel across the stone and raises his mace. Kíli throws himself in the way and takes the blade through his chest, dying with his eyes on her. Legolas hears Tauriel scream, fights Bolg across a collapsing tower, and finally drives a knife through the orc’s skull. Then he lets him fall.
Thorin meets Azog on a frozen waterfall. They trade blows until Azog’s mace crashes through the ice and he vanishes beneath it. Thorin stands over the dark water, watching the orc drift beneath his feet, and lets go of his guard for one second. Azog bursts through the surface and drives his blade into Thorin’s foot.
Thorin lets the blade go deeper. He pulls himself onto the orc and runs Orcrist through his chest, pinning him to the ice. Azog dies looking up at the dwarf whose arm he could not finish. Thorin, bleeding out, crawls toward the edge, and Bilbo wakes from a blow to the head in time to reach him.
The Eagles arrive with Beorn and Radagast, and the battle below breaks. Thorin does not see it. He takes back his words at the gate, tells Bilbo he did what only a true friend would do, and says that a world where more people valued home above gold would be merrier. He dies in a hobbit’s arms, and Bilbo sits with the body until the dwarves find him.
Tauriel kneels over Kíli and asks Thranduil why it hurts so much. “Because it was real,” he answers. Legolas tells his father he cannot go home. Thranduil sends him north to find a young ranger named Strider, whose father the elves protected.
Bilbo says goodbye to the eleven dwarves who remain. Gandalf walks him to the edge of the Shire and remarks that magic rings should not be used lightly. Bilbo says his ring fell out of his pocket during the battle. Gandalf lets the lie stand.
At Bag End, an auction is in full swing. Lobelia Sackville-Baggins has his spoons, and nobody believes the muddy hobbit is Bilbo Baggins until he produces the contract Thorin signed. Alone in his empty home, he takes the Ring out and turns it over in his hand.
Sixty years later, old Bilbo answers a knock on the door. A familiar voice asks if Bilbo Baggins lives here. He throws the door open shouting Gandalf’s name, and The Fellowship of the Ring begins.
So what are the five armies? Elves, Men and Dwarves on one side; Azog’s host from Dol Guldur and Bolg’s host from Gundabad on the other. Tolkien counted goblins and wolves separately, while the Eagles sat outside his tally. The ending also settles Thorin’s arc: the sickness lifts, but his redemption costs him his life and both heirs. Dáin takes the crown, and the Arkenstone goes into the tomb with Thorin.
Are There Post-Credits Scenes?
No. The Battle of the Five Armies has no mid-credits or post-credits scene. The credits roll over Billy Boyd‘s “The Last Goodbye”, with pencil sketches of the cast marking the end of six films.
The Extended Edition contains no footage after the credits either.
Type of Movie
This is epic fantasy structured as a war film. Nearly half the running time belongs to a single battle, which pushes the tone darker than either previous Hobbit film. Dáin and Alfrid supply the comedy, Thorin and Tauriel the tragedy.
It runs 144 minutes in theaters, the shortest of the six Middle-earth films. The Extended Edition adds about twenty minutes and earned an R rating for its added violence, the only Middle-earth film to carry one.
Cast
- Martin Freeman – Bilbo Baggins
- Ian McKellen – Gandalf the Grey
- Richard Armitage – Thorin Oakenshield
- Evangeline Lilly – Tauriel
- Lee Pace – Thranduil
- Luke Evans – Bard the Bowman
- Orlando Bloom – Legolas
- Benedict Cumberbatch – Smaug and the Necromancer
- Billy Connolly – Dáin Ironfoot
- Cate Blanchett – Galadriel
- Hugo Weaving – Elrond
- Christopher Lee – Saruman
- Ian Holm – Old Bilbo
- Stephen Fry – The Master of Lake-town
- Ryan Gage – Alfrid
- Mikael Persbrandt – Beorn
- Sylvester McCoy – Radagast the Brown
- Manu Bennett – Azog the Defiler
- John Tui – Bolg
- Ken Stott – Balin
- Graham McTavish – Dwalin
- Dean O’Gorman – Fíli
- Aidan Turner – Kíli
- James Nesbitt – Bofur
- Stephen Hunter – Bombur
- William Kircher – Bifur
- Mark Hadlow – Dori
- Jed Brophy – Nori
- Adam Brown – Ori
- John Callen – Óin
- Peter Hambleton – Glóin
- John Bell – Bain
Film Music and Composer
Howard Shore closes his second trilogy by bringing every Hobbit theme to its conclusion. The dwarves’ “Misty Mountains” melody turns funereal in “Sons of Durin” and “The Return Journey”, and Smaug’s theme burns itself out in “Fire and Water” during the opening attack.
Battle cues dominate the middle of the album. “Ironfoot” announces Dáin with heavy brass, “The Clouds Burst” scores the were-worms’ arrival, and “Ravenhill” and “To the Death” carry the duels on the ice. “Courage and Wisdom” underscores Galadriel’s stand at Dol Guldur.
Billy Boyd, Pippin in the original trilogy, co-wrote “The Last Goodbye” with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens and sings it over the credits. Shore’s final Middle-earth score received no Oscar nomination.
Filming Locations
Most of this film never left Stone Street Studios in Wellington. Dale, Ravenhill, the gates of Erebor and the frozen waterfall all existed as sets, stages and digital extensions, with Weta Digital filling the valley with armies.
Lake-town burned on the same backlot set built for the previous film, redressed with fire and wreckage. Bilbo’s return home used the permanent Hobbiton set near Matamata, which still stands as a tourist attraction.
New Zealand’s landscapes appear mainly in the ride to the Shire and the scenery behind Gundabad and Erebor, much of it composited from aerial photography shot across the South Island.
Awards and Nominations
The film received a single Academy Award nomination, for Best Sound Editing, and did not win. It also earned a BAFTA nomination for Special Visual Effects. Neither Hobbit sequel repeated the awards success of The Return of the King.
Behind the Scenes Insights
- The film carried the title There and Back Again until April 2014, when Jackson renamed it to match the content of the final chapter.
- Jackson later admitted on the Extended Edition’s documentaries that he had been unprepared for the battle during principal photography. He halted the shoot and spent months redesigning it for the pickups.
- Billy Connolly’s Dáin is almost entirely a digital character built around Connolly’s performance, which allowed the dwarf to ride a war pig and headbutt orcs.
- The were-worms expand a single throwaway line from Tolkien, where Bilbo mentions were-worms in the Last Desert.
- Evangeline Lilly and Aidan Turner shot Kíli’s death on a soundstage set of ruined stone, with Tauriel’s reaction done in close-up over several takes.
- Thorin and Azog’s duel on the ice used a physical set that doubled for the frozen river, with the breaking ice created digitally.
- Pickup photography in 2013 ran for roughly ten weeks, the longest of the trilogy, and added most of the Ravenhill material.
- Martin Freeman’s last shot as Bilbo was his quiet moment at Bag End with the Ring.
Inspirations and References
The final chapters of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s The Hobbit supply the battle, Thorin’s death and the auction at Bag End. The assault on Dol Guldur, Thranduil’s history, Gundabad and Legolas’s errand to find Strider all come from the appendices to The Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien’s war experience shapes Thorin’s end. He wrote the dwarf’s deathbed speech about valuing food and cheer above gold as a direct rebuke to the greed that caused the fighting, a theme he returned to after the Somme. Thorin’s heroic last stand draws on Norse ideals of a king dying in battle.
Jackson’s framing of the ending deliberately mirrors his own The Fellowship of the Ring, repeating Gandalf’s knock and Bilbo’s greeting so the six films form one loop. Alan Lee and John Howe designed Dale and Erebor’s gates.
Alternate Endings and Deleted Scenes
The Extended Edition adds roughly twenty minutes, most of it battle. Its highlights include a war chariot pulled by armored goats that the dwarves ride across the ice, Alfrid’s death by catapult into a troll’s mouth, and far gorier combat.
Thorin’s funeral returns in full, with Bilbo and the company laying the Arkenstone on his chest and Thranduil’s son placing Orcrist in his hands. Dáin is crowned King under the Mountain. Beorn’s transformation mid-flight also appears, as does a quieter exchange between Bilbo and Dwalin.
Earlier plans would have placed Smaug’s attack at the end of the second film. Jackson’s three-film split moved it here, giving this installment its explosive opening and leaving the original title behind.
Book Adaptations and Differences
Tolkien’s Smaug dies because a thrush tells Bard about the bare patch on his chest, and Bard shoots him with an ordinary bow. The Master survives the attack and later dies in the wild, having fled with the gold. Alfrid, Tauriel and Legolas’s subplots do not exist.
Azog died decades before the book opens, killed by Dáin at Moria. Bolg leads the whole orc army, and Beorn kills him in bear form before carrying the wounded Thorin from the field. Fíli and Kíli die defending their uncle, but Tolkien gives their deaths a single sentence.
Bilbo spends most of the book’s battle unconscious after a stone hits his helmet, so he sees almost nothing. Gandalf never suffers capture, and the White Council’s attack on Dol Guldur happens offstage. The Arkenstone bargain, Thorin’s rage at the gate and the deathbed reconciliation all follow the novel closely.
At the end, Bilbo tells Gandalf the truth about his ring in the book, though he later invents the story that Gollum gave it to him. The film has him lie outright that he lost it.
Memorable Scenes and Quotes
Key Scenes
- Smaug burning Lake-town while the Master shovels gold onto his barge.
- Bard steadying the Black Arrow on his son’s shoulder.
- Bilbo telling Thorin about the acorn.
- Galadriel’s transformation at Dol Guldur.
- Dáin’s arrival on a war pig and his greeting to the elves.
- Thorin sinking into the golden floor of his own mind.
- Fíli’s death on the tower.
- Thorin watching Azog drift beneath the ice.
- Bilbo answering the door sixty years later.
Iconic Quotes
- “If more people valued home above gold, this world would be a merrier place.”
- “Will you follow me, one last time?”
- “Why does it hurt so much?” “Because it was real.”
- “I would take back my words at the gate. You did what only a true friend would do. Forgive me.”
- “I am not my grandfather!”
- “You have but one question to answer: how shall this day end?”
- “Go north. Find the Dúnedain.”
- “Farewell, Master Burglar. Go back to your books, and your armchair.”
Easter Eggs and Hidden Details
- Thranduil’s instruction to find Strider sends Legolas toward the Fellowship, since Aragorn would have been a child at the time.
- Elrond wears the same golden armor seen in the prologue of The Fellowship of the Ring.
- Saruman’s promise to deal with Sauron himself marks the start of his corruption.
- Lobelia Sackville-Baggins makes off with Bilbo’s spoons, which old Bilbo still complains about in the first trilogy.
- Bilbo proves his identity with the contract from the first film, lacerations and incineration clauses included.
- Kíli’s runestone passes to Tauriel, and she holds it over his body.
- The acorn Bilbo plans to plant comes from Beorn’s garden, picked in the previous film.
- Gandalf’s final line about magic rings echoes his warning to Frodo decades later.
Trivia
- The film grossed around 956 million dollars worldwide, the second-highest total of 2014.
- At 144 minutes, it is the shortest of all six Middle-earth films.
- The Extended Edition is the only film in the franchise rated R.
- Billy Connolly had never read the books and asked for a crash course on dwarves before playing Dáin.
- Christopher Lee filmed his Saruman scenes at Pinewood in England, in his nineties, and the role was his last in Middle-earth.
- Dean O’Gorman’s Fíli dies first on Ravenhill, making him the only dwarf of the line of Durin to die out of sight of Bilbo.
- The world premiere took place in London on December 1, 2014, and the film opened in the United States on December 17.
- Jackson’s thirteen-year run in Middle-earth ended with this film.
Why Watch?
Thorin’s fall and redemption give the trilogy an ending with real weight, and the Ravenhill sequence delivers some of the most intimate violence Jackson has ever staged. The Battle of the Five Armies closes the loop back to Bag End with a knock on the door. Stay for that last minute.
Director’s Other Movies
- Bad Taste (1987)
- Meet the Feebles (1989)
- Braindead (1992)
- Heavenly Creatures (1994)
- The Frighteners (1996)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
- King Kong (2005)
- The Lovely Bones (2009)
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
- They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)
